‘Bad housing kills’: How coronavirus overwhelmed the UK’s most overcrowded community

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. We need to take the country’s housing inequality much more seriously.” Newham Council has been trying for years to tackle squalid conditions in the private rented sector – where overcrowding is at its most intense. “We’ve got some big housing problems to sort out here.” open image in gallery Police and council enforcement officer conducting raid at property in Newham There are very few good housing options in Newham. Although it’s supposed to be a “temporary” housing arrangement, Marsha has been there ever since she became homeless in August 2017. open image in gallery Marsha Daley has been stuck in temporary accommodation room for three years “It’s a prison-like environment, really – very cramped, very little ventilation, very depressing,” she says of the room where she and her daughter share the bottom half of the bunk bed and their possessions go on the top half. Let’s give them a real housing choice.” The Labour councillor points to the borough’s “ambitious” social housing target and says he’d like the local authority – if it could get more funding – to consider adding another storey onto existing two-storey council housing.